Security Systems News - Ken Gillhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/taxonomy/term/2651
enR&D, training all part of CPI's roadmaphttp://securitysystemsnews.com/blog/rd-training-all-part-cpis-roadmap
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:author dc:creator">Spencer Ives</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:created"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:created" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-08-26T00:00:00-04:00">08/26/2015</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>CPI Security now has a lot of room to grow, including some R&amp;D space. The company started building a new 120,000 square-foot building a few weeks ago. Recently, I got a chance to catch up with Ken Gill, CEO of CPI, and talk a bit more about the new facility’s design and how it compares to—and expands on—the current one.</p>
<p>Room to grow is a big theme with this building. Not everyone at CPI is moving over to the new facility once it’s built, Gill said. In fact, the company currently plans on maintaining both buildings on its 28-acre campus.</p>
<p>“Even though we’re not required to, the entire building will be UL-listed so we can operate [the central station] anywhere in the building,” he said.</p>
<p>The central station, which will move to the new facility when its completed, will have almost triple the space it has now.</p>
<p>“We’ll have better training space in there. Research and development [space] is going to keep us on the forefront of technological advances,” said Gill.</p>
<p>The current 47,000 square foot headquarters was built in late 2001. Gill said he expects the move to be done around the end of 2016.</p>
<p>The building will have amenities like a dining facility and gym to attract and retain employees, he said. It will be environmentally friendly, and CPI will seek LEED certification for the building.</p>
<p>“If we keep our employees happy, then they’ll—in turn—keep our customers happy, they’ll be more engaging with the customers,” Gill said.</p>
<p>CPI’s new building could even help the atmosphere. “Any time that you make investments into the business, it creates good morale,” he said. “When folks see growth, they see opportunity, from an employee standpoint, and we want our employees to know that they do have opportunity.”</p>
<p>CPI has about 130,000 customers in the Southeast United States.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="R&amp;D, training all part of CPI&#039;s roadmap" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 26 Aug 2015 17:44:58 +0000Spencer Ives18521 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/blog/rd-training-all-part-cpis-roadmap#commentsCPI sues ASG, accusing it of ‘raiding’ CPI’s sales repshttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/cpi-sues-asg-accusing-it-raiding-cpi-s-sales-reps
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<div class="field-item even">ASG denies wrongdoing</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-10-02T00:00:00-04:00">10/02/2013</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>CHARLOTTE, N.C.—CPI Security Systems, based here, has filed a lawsuit against the Alarm Security Group (ASG), accusing ASG of “raiding” sales reps from CPI by means of deceptive practices.</p>
<p>Now, CPI contends in the lawsuit, former CPI employees working for ASG “are misappropriating CPI’s confidential/proprietary information and trade secrets … and ASG is directly benefiting from this misappropriation.”</p>
<p>The lawsuit was filed last week in the General Court of Justice, Superior Court Division, Wake County, N.C.</p>
<p>Bob Ryan, ASG senior VP of sales and marketing told <em>Security Systems News</em> in an email communication: “We have not seen the complaint so we can’t comment except to say [that] we don’t believe we’ve engaged in any wrongdoing.”</p>
<p>ASG is based in Beltsville, Md. but is a “direct competitor” of CPI because it has offices in North Carolina in Raleigh, Wilmington and Charlotte, the lawsuit says.</p>
<p>CPI says in the lawsuit that it hired four sales reps earlier this year to work in CPI’s Raleigh office. One was hired in February and the other three in April, CPI says.</p>
<p>The reps, called security consultants by CPI, all signed employment and non-competition agreements that, among other things, barred them from using or disclosing CPI’s confidential information or trade secrets and from working for a CPI competitor for a year after leaving CPI.</p>
<p>But in June, all four sales reps resigned from CPI. The four said they would pursue different business ventures, but all are now working for ASG in its Raleigh office, “in virtually the same role for ASG as they held at CPI,” CPI alleges in the lawsuit. The four sales reps also are named as defendants in the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Also, the lawsuit claims, ASG “directly solicited other CPI employees as well” this year. It says an ASG sales manager emailed at least seven other CPI top sales reps between May 9 and June 5.</p>
<p>ASG offered many a $1,000 bonus to sign up with ASG and also gave them “a false representation of North Carolina law” to persuade them to break their contracts with CPI, that company says in the lawsuit. It alleges that ASG told the employees that because North Carolina is “right to work” state, the non-compete contracts the employees signed “only means you can’t solicit current customers.”</p>
<p>The lawsuit calls ASG’s actions “unfair and deceptive trade practices” and said they “had the effect of raiding CPI.”</p>
<p>The lawsuit further states that “ASG is engaging in a calculated effort to target and hire away CPI security consultants and managers, and in so doing inducing them to breach their contractual obligations to CPI.”</p>
<p>It says the employees “have and will inevitably disclose CPI’s confidential, proprietary information to ASG.” That constitutes a violation of the North Carolina Trade Secrets Protection Act, according to the lawsuit.</p>
<p>CPI seeks an unspecified amount in damages and wants a judge to bar its former employees and ASG from any use of CPI’s confidential business information.</p>
<p>Heidi Cowley, CPI’s VP of marketing and corporate communications, told SSN that the lawsuit was self explanatory so the company didn’t want to comment further.</p>
<p>She added, “Efforts were made to try to do it [resolve the problem] in a different manner to no avail, so we decided to move forward [and file the lawsuit].”</p>
<p>The lawsuit claims CPI President and CEO Ken Gill previously contacted ASG CEO Joe Nuccio, exchanging emails and having conversations about CPI’s concerns, but “ASG continues to employ the former employees and continues to attempt to raid CPI.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="CPI sues ASG, accusing it of ‘raiding’ CPI’s sales reps" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 02 Oct 2013 18:42:53 +0000Tess Nacelewicz16842 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/cpi-sues-asg-accusing-it-raiding-cpi-s-sales-reps#commentsMore problems for Platinum: It’s now charged with defaulting on $700,000 loanhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/more-problems-platinum-it-s-now-charged-defaulting-700000-loan
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<div class="field-item even"> CPI Security contends Platinum is in breach of a loan from CPI and is mismanaging 350 accounts that are collateral</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-04-04T00:00:00-04:00">04/04/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>AMERICAN FORK, Utah—CPI Security Systems, a Charlotte, N.C.-based monitoring company, is suing Platinum Protection, claiming Platinum has defaulted on a $700,000 loan CPI made to the company in January.</p>
<p>CPI contends in a lawsuit, filed March 29 in federal court in Utah against Platinum and its CEO Jared Hallows, that Platinum has not repaid the money as required. Also, CPI claims that Platinum is not able to properly maintain the 350 customer accounts that are collateral for the loan because the company “appears to be in severe financial distress.”</p>
<p>Platinum, a leading summer-sales model company based here, reportedly laid off almost all its employees on Feb. 2. CPI claims in the lawsuit that Platinum’s sales staff is now working for competing companies and that the company’s “financial troubles are interfering with its ability to pay or meet all its obligations” to not only CPI but other creditors.</p>
<p>Such developments put CPI’s collateral accounts “in danger of being lost or significantly reduced in value,” CPI says in the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Hallows did not respond to a request for comment by <em>Security Systems News</em>.</p>
<p>Ken Gill, CEO and founder of CPI, told SSN that his company does not comment on litigation.</p>
<p>Gill previously confirmed to SSN that CPI and Platinum earlier this year were attempting to negotiate an agreement for the two companies to work together, but the deal fell through on Jan. 31. That’s the date the $700,000 loan was memorialized, the lawsuit says.</p>
<p>The CPI lawsuit comes on the heels of <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/problems-plague-platinum-protection" target="_blank">another federal lawsuit</a> filed against Platinum in February by its former primary dealer, Monitronics. That Dallas-based monitoring company seeks more than $2 million for what Monitronics says are bad accounts and loss of revenue guarantees. Monitronics in its lawsuit has asked to take possession of the 6,255 accounts it says remain with Platinum in house.</p>
<p>CPI claims in its lawsuit that Hallows and Platinum made false statements to CPI at the time the loan was made, among them that the collateral customer accounts “were free and clear of any competing claims and/or encumbrances.”</p>
<p>Instead, CPI asserts, “some of the customer accounts had already been provided as security to Monitronics … at the time the parties executed the note or had been sold to Monitronics.”</p>
<p>CPI seeks repayment of the $700,000 loan plus interest and costs, such as attorney fees, plus punitive damages, and it wants the collateral accounts secured.</p>
<p>The layoffs at Platinum and the lawsuits have all occurred in the few months following a December announcement by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had charged Utah residents Wendell Jacobson and Allen Jacobson with running a $220 million real-estate <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/sec-charges-utah-security-company-investors-ponzi-scheme" target="_blank">Ponzi scheme</a>. The Jacobsons provided the primary startup capital for Platinum.</p>
<p>Hallows has told SSN that the Jacobsons no longer have any involvement with Platinum, after the company’s four main founders bought out the Jacobson family’s interest last summer. And Hallows said Platinum only learned of the Jacobsons’ alleged fraud at the time the SEC filed its lawsuit. He complained the SEC action created “an unfair association” between the Jacobsons and Platinum.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="More problems for Platinum: It’s now charged with defaulting on $700,000 loan" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:11:36 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15328 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/more-problems-platinum-it-s-now-charged-defaulting-700000-loan#comments Problems plague Platinum Protectionhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/problems-plague-platinum-protection
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<div class="field-item even"> Summer sales company reportedly laid off employees and is now facing $2m lawsuit from Monitronics</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-02-15T00:00:00-05:00">02/15/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>AMERICAN FORK, Utah—Platinum Protection, a leading summer-sales-model security company based here, reportedly laid off almost all its employees on Feb. 2, including corporate staff, sales representatives and technicians.</p>
<p>And now Platinum is facing a federal lawsuit filed by its primary dealer, Monitronics, demanding more than $2 million that Monitronics says Platinum owes it for bad accounts and loss of revenue guarantees. Monitronics, one of the nation’s largest home security alarm monitoring companies, wants to take possession of 6,255 accounts it says that Platinum still has in house as collateral.</p>
<p>As of early this week, Monitronics was asking a judge to issue an emergency restraining order to help it secure the accounts because it contends those customers can’t be receiving proper service with virtually no staff left at Platinum and no one answering the phones.</p>
<p>Because Platinum and its parent corporation, Platinum Protection-CA, “are in the process of shuttering their business,” the customers are likely to stop paying or terminate their accounts or sign up with another security company, Monitronics asserts in the lawsuit. It wants a judge to order Platinum to refrain from such actions as selling the accounts to another company or modifying its website, which Monitronics said could alarm the customers with those accounts.</p>
<p>The lawsuit was filed Feb. 9 in U.S. District Court in Utah, just one week after Platinum told most of its employees their positions were terminated immediately.</p>
<p>Officials at 6-year-old Platinum did not respond by <em>Security Systems News</em>’ deadline to requests for comment regarding the layoffs and the Monitronics’ lawsuit.</p>
<p>But The Salt Lake Tribune newspaper reported Feb. 2 that Platinum’s in-house attorney confirmed the company had dismissed 65 corporate employees and its sales and technical staff, leaving only a small management team to service existing customers.</p>
<p>And the lawsuit—filed by Dallas-based Monitronics International and two Delaware-based limited partnerships, Monitronics Security and Monitronics Funding—says that Platinum officials told Monitronics that Platinum “had laid off its sales staff and all or almost all of its support staff and [is] unable to pay their obligations to plaintiffs and other creditors.”</p>
<p>Former Platinum employees, who didn’t want their names used, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/problems-platinum-redux" target="_blank">confirmed the abrupt dismissal</a> of staff to SSN.</p>
<p>One former corporate employee told SSN that a company owner told staff, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but Platinum is closing its doors and all employees are terminated effective immediately.”</p>
<p>The employee said: “People were bawling. They had never been through something like this before. … There’s no severance, no nothing.”</p>
<p>Other summer sales companies are reportedly hiring some of Platinum’s laid-off sales reps and other staff.</p>
<p>That employee estimated about 600 staff were let go, including corporate, sales and technical workers, but that the company kept on five or six employees to try to figure out what to do with Platinum’s in-house accounts.</p>
<p>The company brought on about 25,000 accounts last summer, that employee said. According to the lawsuit, Monitronics bought nearly 19,000 accounts from Platinum between March and November 2011. Monitronics asserts nearly 1,300 were bad contracts.</p>
<p>According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Platinum’s attorney wouldn’t give the reason for the layoffs.</p>
<p>But the corporate employee who spoke to SSN said Platinum was in financial distress because Monitronics, which had been buying Platinum accounts since 2007, decided not to do “what they’ve done every single year, which is prefund us for the summer, and give us financing to be able to continue operations.”</p>
<p>Monitronics declined to comment to SSN on that claim.</p>
<p>The employee also told SSN that Platinum was working on an alternate funding plan with CPI Security Systems, a Charlotte, N.C.-based monitoring company. In fact, the employee said that the management team was told Feb. 2 that the reason Platinum was shutting its doors was because CPI decided not to go through with a deal to which it had previously made a commitment to Platinum.</p>
<p>The employee contends that Ken Gill, CEO and founder of CPI, basically pulled funding for the summer just hours before the deal was to be finalized.</p>
<p>But Gill told SSN that was a mischaracterization of the negotiations between CPI and Platinum, which he said ended Jan. 31.</p>
<p>Gill said CPI worked in good faith to try to find a solution that would have benefited both companies, but said negotiations failed due to lack of time, differing goals and other existing Platinum issues.</p>
<p>“If we had not shown up when we did, our opinion is that this would have happened a couple of weeks ago,” Gill told SSN on Feb. 3. “We did not create the situation. We just tried to come in at the last minute to see if we could work with them. They were on life support when we got there.”</p>
<p>Gill said CPI didn’t seriously get involved with Platinum until early January. “It was a very short window. We were working with them for only three or four weeks as we were trying to put something together, and in the end there wasn’t enough time to make it happen,” he said.</p>
<p>He said that CPI, founded in 1976, started a dealer program in the past year and the idea was that Platinum “was going to be one of our entrees into the dealer program.”</p>
<p>He said CPI planned that after Platinum became a dealer “we would entertain another arrangement after we worked together for a year or so.” Gill said what CPI envisioned was something “not much unlike what <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/devcon-and-pinnacle-share-services" target="_blank">Devcon and Pinnacle</a> are attempting to do. We were thinking that might have been a way for us to expand our territory and work together on some projects.”</p>
<p>One problem was a disagreement about a time commitment, Gill said. “One of our biggest concerns was that they were looking for a short-term opportunity and we needed a longer-term commitment,” he said. He added that Platinum wanted an arrangement that would end before 2012 was out and CPI wanted a multi-year agreement.</p>
<p>He also said Platinum was “under tremendous financial pressure.” He said it had been selling off its accounts for five years. “They had very little assets and a lot of overhead,” Gill said.</p>
<p>SSN asked Gill if a <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/sec-charges-utah-security-company-investors-ponzi-scheme" target="_blank">lawsuit,</a> filed in December by the Securities and Exchange Commission and charging that the two men who provided the startup capital for Platinum six years ago have been running a $220 million Ponzi scheme, factored into CPI’s negotiations with Platinum.</p>
<p>Gill said CPI eventually concluded that with Platinum as an authorized dealer, the SEC’s lawsuit against former Platinum investors Wendell Jacobson and his son, Allen Jacobson, was not something to be worried about. Platinum has said the two no longer are owners of the company.</p>
<p>“We got past that when we realized he [Wendell] was no longer involved. But it is our understanding his involvement played a role in Platinum being in the condition it got into,” Gill said.</p>
<p>He stressed that the owners of Platinum “wanted to make a go of it. … I think people need to understand they were trying hard to avoid this situation.”<br /> <br />“We enjoyed working with them. They’re a great bunch of people, and they’ve got a great staff. It’s unfortunate this happened," Gill said.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content=" Problems plague Platinum Protection" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:32:21 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15223 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/problems-plague-platinum-protection#comments